


Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You)

by ShipOnTheHorizon



Series: Find Our Way [1]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Birthday, Birthday Presents, Bisexual Jonathan Byers, Bisexual Steve Harrington, Coming Out, Cute, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Everyone Is Alive, Everyone Is Gay, Fluffy, Fun, Happy Will Byers, I made Jonathan terrible at giving presents because in my head he is :), JUST KNOW, Jonathan Byers/Steve Harrington is Endgame, M/M, Minor Will Byers/Mike Wheeler, No Shadow Monster, Past Steve Harrington/Nancy Wheeler, Photographer Jonathan Byers, Photographs, Photography, blink and you miss it - Freeform, literally its not specified but it exists
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-22
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-05-16 13:02:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19318744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShipOnTheHorizon/pseuds/ShipOnTheHorizon
Summary: “Look, I’m dating Nance, she’s your best friend and for some reason, that means she wants us to be”, Steve grimaced, “civil.”His eyebrows rose in surprise, “I’ve been being civil with you, I’m not sure why you think I’m the problem,”  he quietly says.or5 times that Jonathan takes a photo of Steve and 1 time that he shows them to him.





	1. Civil.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Look. I’m dating Nance, she’s your best friend and for some reason, that means she wants us to be”, Steve grimaced, “civil.”
> 
> His eyebrows rose in surprise, “I’ve been civil with you, I’m not sure why you think I am the problem,” also avoiding eye contact.
> 
> (Currently being edited so sorry if it doesn't flow quite as well - sequel coming soon!)

Jonathan and Steve had never really got on. It was public knowledge that since the first day of middle school, that they didn’t really have anything in common (which wasn’t quite right) and that they hated each other at first sight (although that wasn’t quite right either).

This didn’t mean that Jonathan was blind to Steve’s looks.

His hair, his eyes, his _body_. No, he wasn’t blind to him at all.

It wasn’t that Jon was attracted to him, mostly, but Steve was so pleasing to the eye, that pretty much everyone in the school assumed that it was weirder if you found him unattractive.

This was why, since the beginning of the, Jonathan practically salivated at the thought of taking a photo of him.

Whenever Steve even came to thought, Jon itched to pick up his camera. Of course, there was little chance of that ever happening because of the whole ‘enemies’ thing and because he currently had no camera. 

Although, after the incident with that _thing_ , the possibility of taking a photo of Steve – an almost not-enemy? – is coming closer and closer to reality.

A year after the aforementioned incident, everything seemed to be back to normal. Will was back home, safe. His mum had taken down the lights. Nancy was back with Steve. Jonathan was alone.

As he said, back to normal.

It was when Steve ran up to him in the school hallway that Jon began to believe that maybe not everything had gone back to normal. 

Sighing, Jon stopped Steve from talking by saying “At least let me put all my shit in my locker. I have some delicate photos here and I would rather you not break them since I can’t replace them yet.”

Steve froze in front of him, his face turning apologetic, “I told you I was sorry about your camera.”

Jon’s smile turned twisted, “Doesn’t take it back.” 

Steve rolled his eyes, “Yeah but you punched me too, so. At least believe I’m not going to beat the shit out of you for no reason.”

Jon relaxed slightly before turning around, “Well, if you aren’t going to beat me up then I'm going to go," he pointed towards the parking lot," little brothers don't wait forever.”

He started walking down the hallway to where he had pointed, intenting to find his car before his brother does, only stopping when a familiar hand grabbed onto his shoulder, lightly guiding him over to the lockers lining the hallway. 

Steve looked up and down the hallway, _looking for witnesses probably_ , Jonathan thought suspiciously. “Look. I’m dating Nance, she’s your best friend and for some reason, that means she wants us to be”, Steve grimaced, “civil.”

His eyebrows rose in surprise, “I’ve been civil with you, I’m not sure why you think I am the problem,” he quietly says.

Steve replies by shuffling on the spot for a minute before stopping and rubbing his face, “I know, I know. That’s why I apologized.”

Jonathan stays silent, looking the other boy up and down. He looked sorry enough, and maybe even a little bit angry at himself. He thinks about how Steve didn’t hesitate to help them out with the _thing_. He thinks about how happy he makes Nance. 

He thinks about the unopened camera box on his bed. 

He sighs, then puts his hand out. Steve just looks at it for a minute, bemused “What’s happening?”

Jon gives him a small smile, “Shake my hand, you moron.” Steve’s mouth opens and closes before he seems to understand and closed his hand around his own.

“Civil?”

“Civil.”


	2. First Day.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “We won’t be at the diner, moron, we’re going down the Quarry.”
> 
> Jon froze in surprise, eyes widening, “You hate the quarry.”
> 
> “Well, yeah, but Steve said it might be better for us to go there so you can ‘work and play’ at the same time. His words exactly, by the way.”
> 
> His jaw drops, "Oh."

"Please Jonathan, I'm actually begging you!”

Jon sighed into the phone, dragging the chord as far as it could stretch so that he could move over to his new camera to mess with it, “Nance, I told you – I have so much work to catch up on it’s not even funny.”

“Please," she says, teasing, "you can’t have that much! I thought you only needed to finish up photography this semester?”

“Yeah, and do you know how much work that is? It’s like, way too much.”

“I’m sure it is, but you could always just take pictures with us!” Nancy laughs into the phone.

Jon snorts, mentally noting the us for a later question, “Yes, because I can take tons of pictures at the diner.”

“We won’t be at the diner, moron, we’re going down the Quarry.”

Jon froze in surprise, eyes widening, “You hate the quarry, ever since...” _the whole incident with finding a dead body? One that was supposed to my brother?_ , he finished silently.

“Well, yeah I do, but Steve said it might be better for us to go there so you can ‘work and play’ at the same time. His words exactly, by the way.”

His jaw drops, “Oh.”

She laughs, “Oh? Does that mean you will come?”

Jon sighs.

 

“Hey, Steve.”

Steve looks away from where he was gazing deeply into the woods, the dark look in his eyes vanishing the second they make eye contact. “Jonathan. Dude. Nice to see you.”

“Uh. Yeah, y- you too.” Jon stammers, walking away from his car. As far as he could see, suggested by the two cars – his and Steve’s – in the car park, the Quarry seemed to be deserted. At least no one would be in the way of his pictures.

Steve grimaces slightly, “Sorry for dragging you out here. I, uh, I know Nancy was desperate to see you and I thought this was probably the only way to get you out.” he says, waving to the surrounding trees.

He gives him a small smile, “Yeah. Thanks, I actually do have a ton of photography to do," he shows Steve his camera – the camera _he_ bought him - as evidence, "so this was actually a huge help.”

“No sweat,” he turns around, shrugging, “We should get going, we’ve got a pretty big distance to walk.”

Jon nods, following Steve's lead to start walking. 

They start their walk, Jon stopping every now and again to take a shot of the woods, Steve pausing in his steps whenever he hears Jonathan do the same. 

“Um, where _is_ Nance?”

Steve shrugs while swinging around a tree, “At the quarry probably. She says she would meet us there, although I'm not quite sure how since she hasn’t got a car, but I wasn't going to argue with her.”

“What?" Jonathan stops, his hands hesitating in putting his camera up to his eye, "Is she even coming?”

Steve pauses in front of him, “Hopefully. She might’ve forgotten," he turns around, head tilting, “Would it be a problem if she isn’t?”

Jon takes a moment to think about it. He and Steve had been getting on and their relationship had improved, sort of (by that he means they nod in the hallway, sometimes Steve asks how he is, despite the displeasure of his friends, and once they had a full conversation that wasn’t about Nancy) since they agreed to be civil, and he guesses it wouldn’t be much of an issue to hang out with him - even if their middle ground of Nancy wasn't there with them. 

He smiles and replies, “Unless you feel the need to throw me from the quarry, then I think we _should_ be good.”

Steve laughs, surprised. “You make jokes now? When did that happen?”

Jon rolls his eyes, still smiling, and begins walking again, passing by Steve. 

Their shoulders brush together.

 

It takes another half an hour for them to arrive at the main cliff that overlooks the quarry, and as soon as they get there Steve's exhaustion seems to get the best of him. He drops to the floor, squatting down before falling backward onto his ass and staying that way.

Jon, meanwhile, picks up his camera.

Despite the tragedy that he still associates with the base of the Quarry (the body washing ashore that he sometimes still dreams of, what he _saw_ that wasn’t truly _real_ ) he can’t help but see the beauty in it when he stands above it. The way the sun shines off the water makes it seem as if nothing bad can ever come out of it. He knows better.

It only takes a few minutes for Steve to start talking: “So, Byers. What do you take pictures of?”

Jon laughs quietly, fiddling with his camera, and moving closer to the cliff edge, “Anything, I take pictures of basically anything.” As an obvious example, he pulls his camera up and takes a few pictures of the drop.

“Yeah, fine, but what do you like taking pictures of?”

The light clicking from the camera stops as Jon puts his camera down and moves over slightly, reframing the shot. “Um, I would like to say people, but most of the time they don’t come out how I intended – there is a sort of... wildness to people that can’t often be seen in photographs. I- I also don’t really have many to take photos of - and you know what happened the last time that I did.”

Steve sits up, ignoring Jonathan's final comment, and leans back on his hands: “That’s a cool way to think about it, people being too wild to contain in photos. But, honestly, why not? I would’ve thought everyone would have wanted a good picture of themselves even though it’s quite narcissistic,” he commented.

“Oh, now that’s a big word.” Jon teased.

“Fuck off.” Steve answered, head flopping backward, eyes closing.

The bright light hits the side of his face, making him look like he is practically glowing from the direction that Jon is standing in. And his hair, Steve's favourite part of himself, shone, the dark locks almost looking golden because of the reflection of the sun.

Jon instinctively pulls his camera up. The click of the camera and Jon’s silence makes Steve’s head rise from where it was positioned.  
“If I knew I would become a model I would’ve chosen a much more attractive position to sit in.” 

Jon flinches, thoughts flying back to when Steve was his subject, quickly putting the camera down, “Sorry. I’ll, um, I’ll delete it.”

Steve begins to wave his hand before realizing he is very likely to fall backwards, “No, no, no. No. Dude, don’t. I know I, well, I hurt you for the same reason before but I do need more pictures of myself.”

“But you just said people who wanted more pictures of themselves were idiots.” Jon says, looking up.

Steve laughed brightly, “What can I say? You got me there,” he pauses before continuing, “Seriously though, take more pictures, um, if you want. My mom would love them.”

“And Nancy?” Jon says with a teasing smile.

Steve’s smile drops slightly, just enough to be noticeable. “Sure, her too.”

Jon takes note of this, I thought they'd been getting on better since the Demogorgon he thinks, but ultimately carries on and bring his camera back up to his eyes. 

He snaps more and more pictures, thinking he just wants them, this isn’t weird, _it’s fine, I'm fine, he’s fine._

 

It’s a few days later that he finally develops all of the photos he took that day. He’s lucky that he took pictures of more than just Steve – he wasn’t kidding when he says he had tons of work – so that he had good photos to give in to his photography class. 

Not to say that the pictures didn’t come out great. If he’s being honest, they were probably his best so far. 

He made a copy of each.


	3. Second Drift.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He gets up, brushing his hand through his hair, and opens the door. As the door creaks open, he mumbles through the gap. “I’m fine Mom, really, you do not need- Jonathan?”
> 
> Jonathan smiles at him through the crack in his doorway, “Steve.”

It was no later than 11 at night when Steve heard a soft knock on his door. He has been wide awake, no closer to sleep than he was an hour before, so it didn’t alarm him but more so acted as a surprise. 

He gets up, brushing his hand through his hair, and opens the door. As the door creaks open, he mumbles through the gap. “I’m fine Mom, really, you do not need- Jonathan?”

Jonathan smiles at him through the crack in his doorway, “Steve.” 

Since their accidental outing to the Quarry a month before (or not so accidental according to Nancy) Jon and Steve had actually grown quite close, finding out more and more things in common. They’ve actually become so close that Steve sits with him at lunch instead of his own... _friends_ , as they have so much to talk about. 

That still didn’t explain why he was at Steve’s house at 11 with no warning.

“What – what the hell are you doing here?”

Jonathan shrugs, face blank.

“Just wanted to discuss some schoolwork.”

Steve sighs, “At 11pm?” 

Despite his own words, he continues to open the door further, moving out of the way to allow Jonathan inside. He’s not stupid, he knows why he’s here, and he’s both thankful that he didn’t mention it immediately and not that he tries to get away with pretending. 

Jon carries on pretended, nodding, and at this point, Steve can’t really figure out who that’s for.

“Why not? Isn’t 11 pm the time you are meant to be more productive or something?”

“No. 11pm is a time to be asleep. At least, those of us that are _mostly_ mentally stable do so,” Steve says, rolling his eyes with a small and fond smile.

“Fuck off. Also, you are awake Steve, so you aren’t ‘us’.”

Steve rolls his eyes again, closing the door behind the two. Jon takes the time to sit on the bed, pulling his legs up and crossing them. He looks so young when he does that, and despite their new relationship, this isn’t the first time that Steve has seen that particular scene. 

“So,” Jon starts.

“And here we go.” 

“Um, no, not here we go. I just said so.” Jon says, eyebrows drawing downwards. Steve’s head drops.

“Yes, you said so. But you definitely did not just mean so.”

Steve looks back up to see Jonathan staring at him, worried: “Then what did I mean?”

“You heard about me and Nancy.”

“Whaaaat?” He drags the word out. “What happened?”

“Jon.”

“Okay, yes I heard. Are you okay?”

Steve takes a minute to think. Is he? He walks over to the bed and sits next to Jonathan.

If he thinks about it honestly, they had been on the brink of breaking up for a while, ever since he had (not very nicely) accused her of cheating with the boy currently sitting on his bed with him. He almost laughs at the irony.

He can almost guarantee that Jonathan had known that his relationship was going downhill, especially after their day at the quarry – and that was a few months ago. 

“I think,” he pauses, not sure how to word it. “Um, I think I saw it coming?”

Jon nods, turning himself on the bed so that he faces Steve. It showed an integral part of his character, that despite their history and the fact that his two closest friends (wasn’t that a bit depressing) had broken up, he hadn’t taken sides at all, only acted as an ear.

“It wasn’t – I’m, I’m not feeling-“

“Just because you knew it was coming, doesn’t mean you’re happy about it.”

Steve almost smiles, “Yeah. Yeah, exactly. But I’m also not fully broken up about it. I loved her and she loved me but we just, fell out of love, y’know?”

Jonathan’s hand has drifted onto his shoulder in support in the brief conversation, but Steve finds he doesn’t need the support. He was kind of broken up about immediately after it happened, evidently badly enough for his mom to see it when he got home, but after a night of thinking about it, he has mostly rationalized it. 

Steve shakes his head, hair moving onto his forehead, “Anyway. I’m over it. Jonathan’s eyebrows rise, but he accepts it. He knows Steve well enough to leave it alone.

“Cool dude. Do you want to watch something then? You have a TV, right?”

Steve looks over to the TV in the corner and then back and Jon, who blushes a light pink. It actually helps make him look younger. Cuter.

“Piss off.”

It’s when they’re settled and Steve is half asleep on his bed, legs splayed and above the covers, that he feels Jon move away off the bed (he may have unconsciously put his arm over Jon’s chest at some point – he thinks that could have be moving on slightly fast but he can’t think about what it means right now). 

He shuffles around, then opens his eyes to see him move over to pick up the bag he dropped onto the floor earlier, “You good?”

Jonathan jumps, head flying around to look at him. “Jeez, I didn’t realize you were still awake.”

Steve pushes himself up, and strategically falls off the bed enabling him to stand up, from his position on his stomach, “Not really. What’re you doing?”

Jon shrugs nonchalantly but his blush told a different story, “I-I was going to take a picture?”

He stares at him. “Of?”

“Um,” he flushes, trying to continue acting as if it wasn’t quite odd, “You?”

Steve recoils, he doesn’t even look that great. He stripped out of half his clothing and is in a creased shirt and his boxers. His hair isn’t styled, and he likely looks a little bit homeless.

(If he is being honest, he can actually feel a bit of drool on his cheek too).

“Why?”

Jon, similar to Steve’s look earlier, stares. “Why? That’s a bit of a stupid question.”

Steve moves his hand to reference his body, “Because this isn’t exactly, uh, model worthy.”

Jon laughs at him, before realizing that Steve is definitely serious.

“Okay that’s just stupid – you know you’re good looking. Don’t tell me _one_ measly breakup has shrunk your brain.”

Steve throws himself back down onto his bed, getting back into a similar position that he was in prior to Jonathan getting. Shyly mumbling into the pillow, he says “Do what you want, but I am going back to sleep.”

He drifts off to the sound of the camera clicks and flashes.

(Later in the next morning, when most of the night was forgotten, mostly due to exhaustion and a bit of alcohol, he remembers.

“Hey, Jon?”

“Yeah?”

“How the hell did you even get into my house?”)


	4. Third Admission.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You with me?”
> 
> Steve smiles brightly, “Nope.”
> 
> Jon rolls his eyes but puts the glass in the sink before pulling Steve off the table and balancing him when he stumbles into him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so so so much for 100 kudos! This has been my favourite book to write and I'm frankly so happy it's made it this far. Hope you enjoy the new chapter :)

Jon opens the door to whoever's house the party was happening at, pushing past the two drunk teenagers heavily making out in the hallway - and the three girls watching them - to get into, what he assumes to be, the kitchen. When he finds out it’s not the kitchen, he awkwardly turns around and wanders down the hallway until he reaches an open archway into the actual kitchen.

The kitchen that houses Steve sitting on the table, incredibly drunk.

“Jonny boy!”

Jon sighs, walking into the kitchen, ignoring Steve - and his exaggerated shock at him doing so - and walked over to the cupboards that lined the furthest wall. He looks around, finding a glass, before filling it up to the brim and giving it to Steve.

“Drink.”

Steve does so without argument, and Jon’s eyebrows rise with amazement (and a weird sense of satisfaction that Jon was trying his best to ignore). Huh. He slams the glass onto the table once he’s finished with it and Jon takes a second to look at him, taking note of his flushed cheeks and dilated pupils. He refills the glass and gives it to him, “One more.” 

Steve obeys. The next time the glass lands on the table, Steve looks _slightly_ more sober, his smile becoming more genuine (if not vaguely confused) and less overwhelming. Jon picks up the glass before asking “Are you with me yet?”

Steve smiles brightly as if he had no water to begin with, “Nope.” Jon rolls his eyes but puts the glass in the sink then goes to pull Steve off the table and balancing him when he stumbles into him. 

“Careful dude, jeez.”

“Sorry, Jonny.”

Jon looks at him blankly, “Steve.”

Steve just smiles at him, innocently. Jon, again, rolls his eyes before putting Steve’s arm around his neck then dragging him out of the house to his car that he haphazardly parked on the road. He only hopes he hasn't suddenly been blocked in by any other cars. _Luckily_ , he thinks as he semi-violently shoves Steve into the front passenger seat of the car, _he has not been_. Once Jon is in the car and has wrestled with Steve to get his seatbelt on, he starts the engine and drives. 

They’ve been in the car for about 5 minutes when Steve seems coherent, and also interested, enough to answer any of Jonathan’s questions.

“Want to tell me why you got so drunk?” he says, taking a left turn towards his own house a few miles from the center of Hawkins.

When Steve was telling him that he was going to a party at one of his old friend’s house, Jonathan had immediately offered to pick him up whenever he called and take him to the Byers house for the night - especially since his own parents would have a very adverse reaction to their only child drinking underage. He, himself, would also prefer for him not to drown in his own vomit, which is quite likely to happen if he was left to his own devices.

“Jonathan.” Steve sighs against the car window, head lolling against it uncomfortably.

He smiles, while it's not the first time that he has seen Steve tipsy, he always laughs at how his body seems to just fall about with no control; “What Steve?”

“No,” Steve whines, “I got drunk because of Jonathan.”

Jon recoils and squints ahead at the road, although his smile remains. “What? Why?”

Steve’s head continues to just flop about, “Nancy,” he says.

Jon looks away from the road at him briefly in confusion, not understanding what he is trying to say. “What do you mean, Nancy?”

Steve and Nancy had broken up over 5 months ago, and Jonathan had thought that Steve was fully over it. He had gone over to his house the night after and he had seemed upset, but definitely not sad enough for it to persist for that long; as far as Jon knew, they had been patching their relationship up to start anew as friends and Nancy had even talked to him about a boy she had met over the summer.

Steve just nods, resulting in him smacking his head against the window of the car and groaning in annoyance (at himself or the window, Jon wasn't sure). 

“Steve.”

Steve looks at Jon, smile brightening as soon as they catch eyes. 

“Yeah?”

Jonathan can’t help but smile at him, snorting. Since they have become close, Steve has definitely managed to always bring a smile out from him, uncomfortable situation or not. 

“What did you mean when you said you got drunk because of Jonathan and Nancy?”

Steve continues smiling, but sighs slightly, chest visibly deflating. “Jonathan was the reason we broke up. Nancy told me.”

Jonathan’s heart begins to pound, both in alarm and confusion at him being the cause of their breakup. _What? She hadn't said anything about that?_

He slows the car down and signals to pull over onto a patch of dirt. They’re only a few minutes away from his house, but if he drives without getting answers he’s definitely going to lose all of his concentration. He continues to release his seatbelt and twists his torso around, after putting the handbrake on, allowing him to look at Steve. “What do you mean?”

Steve shrugs, turning to look at him fully. Despite the confusion that Jon was feeling, Steve still looked at him brightly, apparently not understanding the tone of the car.

“I thought you and Nancy were just having problems. What does the breakup have to do with me?”

Jonathan was beginning to get more concerned as the silence went on; while he knew Nance and Steve weren’t great when they broke up, and the weeks – probably even months - before, he didn’t really want to be the cause of two of his closest friend’s breakup, especially after their relationship had healed so much.

“Liked you too much.”

What?

“Who liked me too much? Nancy? I didn’t realize you were the jealous type Steve, especially since you know there is nothing between us.”

Steve shook his head, “No,” he wined, “Me.”

_What?_

“ _You_ liked me too much?”

It took a minute for Jonathan to properly digest what Steve had just admitted to him, mouth agape. He turned to look outside the window contemplating what he meant. _He couldn't mean... No._ He turned back towards Steve from where he had been looking out the window and found Steve with his eyes closed tightly.

“Steve.”

He didn’t move.

“ _Steve_.”

Still nothing.

He shoves him slightly, slapping his shoulder. Nothing.

The idiot passed out. Jonathan sighs, brushing his hair out of his face before putting his seatbelt back on, starting the engine of his car and pulling back out onto the road. 

He’s nothing if not considerate, he thinks as he turns his radio down. The final two minutes of his journey seems to drag out, but it’s barely morning when he gets home. He turns off the engine, leaving him and the unconscious Steve in silence. He looks at him for a moment, smiling despite himself.

He’s confused, very _very_ confused, but he’s a normal friend and normal friends laugh when their friend has passed out, squished against the window, mouth wide open and drooling.

Jon, not one to miss out on obvious opportunities, picks up his camera from around his neck. He takes his time to take the photos, before putting the camera down and getting out the car. 

It doesn’t take nearly as long to get an unconscious Steve out the car than it did to get a drunk one in. The front door to his house opens just as he gets to it, pulling Steve onto the porch and through the door, smiling at his brother.

“Will.”

His little brother, safe in his own house, smiles back at him. “Jonathan,” he looks at Steve, “and passed out Steve.”

Jon snorts, continuing down the hall with Steve hooked around him. He gets to his room, innocently using Steve to shove his door open, before dropping him onto his bed. It resulted in Steve mostly landing on the bed, but one leg hanging of the bed at what looked like a very uncomfortable angle.

“Have fun?”

Jon looks away from Steve’s prone body to Will’s smiling face. “At the party I didn’t go to, but picked Steve up from? So much fun.”

Will rolls his eyes, “I meant,” he says, dragging out the second word like the little brother he is, “Did you have fun taking photos? In the car?”

Jon flushed light red but rolled his eyes, trying to stay casual, “You saw?”

“Of course I saw.”

“He was drooling! And - and passed out! And snoring?”

Will laughs at him, a smile taking up most of his face. Jon thought he looked the copy of their mother. Thank God he didn’t look like Lonnie. “I wasn’t judging you Jon, just teasing!”

Jonathan just looks at him blankly, one eyebrow up, before lightly shoving him out of his room and slamming the door. It shut on Will’s bright laughter. If he had to be embarrassed for that laugh, he would do it for the rest of his life. As long as he could take more photos. Of Steve mostly, but he wasn’t about to admit that.


	5. Fourth Meeting.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You okay? You were pretty, uh, drunk last night." Jonathan says, stepping around him into the kitchen with a small smile.
> 
> Steve smiles, bypassing whatever he was just thinking, "Yeah, thanks. I hope I wasn't too much of a handful."
> 
> His smile became brittle, turning away from Steve before he could comment on it. "You don't remember?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully, I will finish this book in the next few weeks, as I've just broken up from school (and I have nothing to do with my time, hence the faster updates). Hope you like the newest chapter :)

It takes Steve a while to wake up. 

The combination of the heat, the dark room, the pounding he can practically hear in his head and the heat, makes him just want to burrow under his pillow and stay there forever. Although he probably shouldn't, he gives in to his desperate need to sleep, for once, and burrows his head back into the space between his pillow and bed.

He freezes when he feels another body shuffle. And then seems to freeze further when he finally realizes where he is, barely remembering the night before and who that body must be:

"Jonathan?" 

The boy next to him doesn't wake up, eyes remaining firmly closed, but he definitely continues to move around in his sleep. Steve sighs, relaxing back into the mattress. At least that explains the heat: who knew that Jon was such a _furnace_.

He tries to relax enough to go back to sleep, but the headache has decided to come back full force, so he moves out of Jonathan's hold (slowly shifting out from under his arm that had somehow landed on him at some point in the night) and shuffles off and away from the bed.

He drags himself to the door, thankful for Jonathan closing his curtains before collapsing into bed, fully clothed, as shown by his splayed body. He then shuffles out into the hallway of the Byers house, jumping when he sees Joyce in the hallway, smiling straight at him and holding some Tylenol.

"Hello Steve, you okay?"

Steve smiles shyly, taking the tablets from her when she offered and swallowing them all dry. "Hi Mrs. Byer-"

She rolls her eyes in a manner very similar to her son’s. It was times like this where it was easy to see that Jonathan was related to her; it also wasn’t an uncommon facial expression to see on the youngest of the Byers boys. 

"Please, call me Joyce. I don't need my boy's boyfriend calling me Mrs. Byers."

Steve's smile gets bigger. "Okay Joy-" he stops, "Boyfriend?"

Joyce looks at him, confused herself, "Sorry, is there another term?"

Steve looks straight back, confused "Um, no, but I'm not Jonatha-"

He’s cut off when Joyce moves forward, placing her hand on his shoulders before saying "I'm not like them out there Steve, you can be honest,” with no judgement.

Steve snorts lightly, "I appreciate that Joyce, I really do, but honestly I'm n-"

"Steve?"

Joyce looks at him knowingly, before calling out back to Jonathan.

"He's out here Jon!"

It only takes a few seconds for Jonathan to come out of his room, obviously having changed into something more comfortable than he wore in his sleep; he was in some flannel trousers and a soft shirt. Steve swallowed. 

As they got closer and closer, it got much harder to ignore the feelings that he felt when he saw him like this, not because of his clothing, but because of how... comfortable he looked. It didn’t make it easier to ignore when the boy-who-he-was-feeling- _something_ -for’s mom thought that Jon and him were already dating.

"You okay? You were pretty, uh, drunk last night." Jonathan says, easily stepping around him into the kitchen with a small smile.

Steve smiles back, shaking those thoughts away to come back to, "Yeah, thanks. I hope I wasn't too much of a handful."

His smile became brittle, turning away from Steve before he could comment on it. "You don't remember?"

Steve walked further into the kitchen, moving closer to the other boy. 

"No, not much of it, only earlier in the night and nothing past my fifth drink,” he says, laughing lightly at himself, “Why? What did I say?"

Before Jonathan could answer, mouth open, his mother interrupted, "I'm going to go, I've got work this afternoon. Don't forget to pick your brother up later Jon, he is at Mike’s and will be there until late. I hope you have a good day Steve."

Steve smiled at her, past the confusion he is sure is all over his face, "You too Joyce."

He watched her as she left the door, eyes not moving away from the door until it was closed firmly behind her, and he heard the car drive off.

"So?"

Jonathan sighed, putting his cup of coffee down on the only empty space of the counter in their kitchen. There was an empty milk carton on the counter, empty bowls left in the sink, even an unfinished meal on the side. It only served to remind him how little time all of the Byers were in the house, with Jonathan working most of the time now that they had finished school, and Joyce barely being home. 

"You were drunk."

Steve sat at the table in the middle of the room. "Yes, I was drunk. But what did I say when I was drunk?"

"I don't believe it, you probably didn't even mean it, you were so drunk."

"You don't believe what?" Steve was losing his patience. Although his headache was slowly decreasing, it was too early in the 'morning' for this conversation to be happening.

"You were..." he pauses, before sitting down at the table with Steve, "You were talking about why you broke up with Nancy."

Steve freezes minutely, before relaxing once again. "Dude, that was months ago, you know why we broke up.

"You said it was because of me."

No one says anything for a while.

"Oh." 

Jonathan laughs quietly, "Yeah. Oh."

"Did I... say anything else?"

"You said it was because you liked me too much, whatever that means?"

Steve grimaced silently, resting his arms on the table. He knew it would come up at some point, and especially after his conversation with Joyce, he was delusional to think that his friendship with Jon could continue in this way. Honest had always been the _one_ thing that he made sure to always be, especially in a relationship, even if it wasn't the type of relationship that he wanted.

"I’m sorry if it, uh, makes you uncomfortable."

Jon squints across the table, confused, "What? Why would it make me uncomfortable? _What_ would make me uncomfortable?”

"Um," Steve says, "I thought that was ob- I like you."

“Yes, Steve, we have clarified that you like me. I'm just not sure why that would have affected your relationship with Nancy?”

“Don’t be obtuse Jon, I _like_ you. Like, I would like to date you? I wasn't- I wasn't really sure of it at the time, but girls always know, you know? Especially Nancy the detective.”

Jon doesn’t seem to know what to say. Steve knows that it has always been difficult for Jon to accept affection from everyone, and he doesn't doubt that this is him avoiding accepting that Steve cares for him any more than a friend shoul, if only because - despite many people in his life saying otherwise on multiple occasions - he believes that he doesn't deserve it. 

(Personally, Steve has theories it developed that day when Jon's dad left. Abandonment issues in every sense.)

“Obtuse isn’t a word I ever thought you would say.” Jon says, after a moment.

They both continued to stare at each other for a moment, before Steve burst into laughter. It took a minute, but eventually Jon joined in; Steve wasn't quite sure whether he was laughing with confusion, joy or pure worry. It carries on for a few moments, Steve wanting to both ignore the previous conversation, and move on as soon as possible.

Jonathan calms down before Steve, and just watches him for a minute, waiting for Steve to do the same.

"So, you like me?"

Steve flushes a deep red, not sure what answer Jon would actually _want_. He decides to be honest, thinking about shoulders brushing together in the woods, support given whilst they could still be considered enemies, a friendship offered despite years of previous pain.

"Yeah", Steve says slowly, "Yes. I like you."

Jonathan doesn't say anything, looking as if he is trying to take it in. At least he doesn't look angry, Steve thinks.

"I was," he starts to explain, "talking to Nancy about when we went out to the quarry, not that first time where she left us to ourselves, but the one after, where we didn't just go so you could do work?" Jonathan smiles, obviously thinking about it, "She just looked at me and said 'I think we need to break up'. That was that. She didn't explain it to me, not then at least, but I realized a week or two afterwards that it was because of how I was talking about you."

It had taken him a while, even after that moment, to realise that he actually had feelings for Jonathan, but he wasn't going to tell Jonathan that.

"So, it was, in a weird way, my fault?" While Jonathan says it as if he is teasing him, Steve can hear the serious emotion behind the words. He knows that Nancy and Jon are still close friends, and he also knows how angry Jon would be at himself if he was involved in hurting her, or Steve, even if it was only being the boy that her boyfriend had fallen for.

"No Jon, don’t be an idiot. It was mine; I was a terrible boyfriend for Nancy. We just didn't bring out the best in each other," he moves his hand from the table and onto Jonathan's. " _You_ bring out the best in me, and I like to think I do the same for you."

Jonathan's slight frown turns up into a smile that is much more genuine, moving his own free hand onto the top of Steve's. 

"You do. I want to say you always have, but you tended to bring out the anger in me first."

Steve laughs this time, acknowledging his teasing tone. "Same."

He seems to become quiet, thinking. He then looks up at Steve, considering; "You do know we will have to talk to Nancy about this? I mean, she is one of my best friends and I might feel... something for you, but I don't want to hurt her."

Steve is nodding before Jon even finishes, "I wouldn't expect otherwise. I just," he pauses, nervous, "I just want a chance." 

His face doesn't change, frozen in consideration of eveything that has been said. More moments pass before Jon asks, "Can I kiss you?” He looks just as surprised about his own statement as Steve feels, but despite the surprise, he looks seriously at him.

"Of course. Yes. Please.”

He stands up from his chair, hands sliding out from under Steve’s own, and moving to the other side of the table. Steve himself, stands up and, trying not to look nervous, puts his hands behind his back to hide the shaking.

The other boy leans closer and closer and _closer_ until their noses are almost touching, and then he stops.

"Steve."

Steve licks his lips, impatient, "Jonathan?"

Jon looks down at his lips, before catching his gaze. "I, uh, like you too, just so you know," he says before moving forward to catch Steve's lips in a light kiss, head tilting into his.

They kiss for a few moments; no tongue, no teeth, but still just as intense. It feels right in a way that, no matter what they tried, it never had been with Nancy; he loved her, and he always would as a friend, but they never had the spark. In a way, it was almost easier to break off what they had, especially when he knew with a certainty that something better could follow after it. They part a few seconds later, faces red but smiles wide. 

"Despite the terrible, uh, 'finishing line', thats's good," Steve says, smiling widely, "That’s really good."

Jonathan laughs at him, barely moving inches away from him to give him some space. As he moves back, a familiar look appears in his eyes. 

Steve sighs, hiding a laugh, "Fine." 

Jonathan stills innocently and just looks at him strangely.

"Go get it." He continues to look at him strangely before he seems to understand, and his eyes brighten. 

He instantly jogs off to go pick up his camera from where it is lost in his room and Steve tries not to move, and jiggle about as an innocent type of _joy_ overtakes him, before he comes back with his camera. He only takes a single picture before putting the camera down.

"No more?"

Jonathan shakes his head before pushing him down into the chair and confidently sitting down on Steve's lap. 

"I've got better things to be doing," he says before swiftly dragging Steve into another kiss.


	6. Five Is A Crowd

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Jon.”
> 
> Jonathan, who was talking to Jim on the other side of the room, looks at her before finishing their conversation with a small laugh, and moves over to his mom.
> 
> When he makes an inquiring sound, she just says “Can you take a picture?”

It was times like this that Joyce could barely suppress a smile.

Times where, even after everything that had happened in the past few years with monsters and powers and _fear_ , her two precious boys could feel safe.

Christmas day was in less than three hours, and everyone that the Byers deemed to be their family – a number which had steadily increased throughout the aforementioned few years, an unexpected positive – were at the Byers house to celebrate.

The house could barely fit the number of people, but they were determined: they were packing themselves into every possible corner, talking and smiling.

As she moved into the kitchen, trying to find her own space and take a moment to breathe, she finally had a chance see Jonathan, who was standing next to Steve in front of the window. She had seen them move into the kitchen a few minutes before herself, hand in hand and giggling from what she can only assume is them being drunk in love or _drunk_.

She couldn’t hear – or even deduce from afar – what they were talking about, but from the small smiles and light laughter being traded between them, it was something positive.

It had taken a while to get to this moment, be she was _so_ glad they had. Even after the fear and pain, and believing her own son, her _Will_ was dead, it was almost impossible to believe that they could all be happy; that people could still have what they wanted, or have _who_ they wanted. 

She was distracted from her thoughts by Steve laughing loudly, louder than she had ever heard him. He bent over with the force of it, and though she cared about Steve a great deal, it was her son’s face she was interested in.

His eyes were frozen to his boyfriend, shining with, not just amusement, but honest contentment; he could barely look away. Joyce hadn’t seen him look like that for a while, not since he was barely even a toddler, not since before his dad had left their family (even if it was for the best in the end).

Steve stopped laughing, rising up from his position and pulling Jon towards him by the waistband of his jeans and then resting his arms around his waist. Jonathan responds by placing his own arms around Steve’s neck, and pulling his face down to his own. 

Joyce looks away before they kiss, not out of disgust but due to a respect for their privacy. 

Apparently, the rest of those that were in her house didn’t have the same thoughts.

While she couldn’t see what was going on, she assumes, from the eye rolls and fake gagging of the kids all sitting at the table – Max, El, Dustin and Will – that the boys hadn’t stopped at simple kissing and were likely pushing the boundaries of appropriate behaviour for a party, even if they _did_ have the excuse of being drunk. 

“Hey, loverboys! Young children here!” Dustin’s voice echoed through the room, alongside the laughter of the other three. 

Joyce looked back towards her son, only to see him and Steve move apart; Jonathan was flushed bright red and making much more of an effort to separate from the other boy, Steve on the other hand, ignored the jeers from the kids and mumbled to Jonathan, pulling him back over. Jonathan flushed a deeper red and Joyce rolled her eyes at the two – since they had got together the PDA had increased more and more.

Suddenly Steve burst out laughing at something that he had said to Jon, and Jon replied by pushing him away and walking towards the main group of people in the other room. 

“Jon! I was kidding!” Steve says to Jon’s back, still laughing.

Jonathan doesn’t turn around, instead choosing to aim his middle finger back at him. Joyce watches him sit down between Nancy and Robin on the couch, ignoring their looks while also ignoring Steve’s own looks. 

The night continues like that, with everyone talking to everyone else and relaxation, until the clock chimes – metaphorically since they don’t actually have a clock – at midnight. Most of the kids and their parents leave to get home (after wishing everyone else a Merry Christmas and handing out gifts) leavings only El and Jim, Steve and her own family. 

As far as she knew, Steve didn’t want to spend Christmas with his own family until he had to, as – while she wasn’t told – she knew that his parents didn’t react quite as nicely to the fact that he had a boyfriend as she did. 

She was glad to have him.

Their Christmas morning consists of lots of presents, more laughter than Joyce had thought she’d see in the rest of her lifetime, and so _so_ much happiness.

Later in the morning, with Steve talking to Will and El on the floor while Will tells him about the songs on his new cassette tape, Joyce makes a choice. She knows that she hasn’t always been interested in Jon’s photographic ability but today, she wants this memory to be forever.

To be frozen.

“Jon.”

Jonathan, who was talking to Jim on the other side of the room, looks at her before finishing their conversation with a small laugh, and moves over to his mom.

When he makes an inquiring sound, she just says “Can you take a picture?”

Jon stops a few steps away from her, taken aback. Joyce isn’t sure how to feel about the fact that her son is so shocked that she wants him to take a photo, or that she is so interested, but she decides to ignore that thought for the time being.

“Of you and Jim?” As he asks the question, he is already moving backwards and picking up his camera from the chair to frame the photo.

“No, no. Of all of us.” She says, waving her hands around the room, at all of those in the room.

Steve stands up from his place on the floor after – she assumes – overhearing their conversation and smiles at Joyce before nudging Jonathan towards the coach; “I’ll do it, so you can be in it.” he says. Jonathan rubs his should with his hand in thanks and passes him the camera, unhooking it from his neck.

Joyce shakes her head, taking the camera from Jon before Steve can, “No. Steve, you are a part of the family now. Jonathan can take the picture.” She winks at Jonathan, knowing that he will understand the need to freeze a moment, even if she doesn’t say it out loud.

She quickly passes him the camera before dragging everyone onto their couch. 

The kids pile on, Joyce and Jim moving to stand behind the couch, leaving Will, Steve and El to figure out where they’re sitting. Eventually, Steve ends up in the middle, arms firmly curled around El and Will.

Despite the familiar position they’re all in, they must all end up looking slightly uncomfortable as Jon resists taking the picture. This lasts until Steve mumbles something quietly to Will and El and it must be funny enough as it makes them both burst into giggles. Joyce and Jim catch eyes and smile brightly at each other. 

(About time.)

That’s when Jon takes the picture. The flash goes off, the click interrupts the laughing. Each of them look towards him, seeing his bright smile when looking at the photo. It ends up showing his whole family, Will and El looking at each other giggling, Joyce smiling at Jim, with him just looking back at her, eyes bright.

And Steve? Steve is looking straight at Jonathan.

It ends up being hung up on their wall months later. It’s her favourite photo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This isn't my favourite chapter but I still enjoyed writing it, and I hope you enjoyed reading it!


	7. Final Kings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> His brother just looked at him, amused, “You remember his birthday?”
> 
> Jon just groaned, moving away from the door to look out the window, watching Steve’s car leave.
> 
> “I’m screwed. Actually screwed.”

Jonathan had never been great at giving people birthday presents. Starting at Will’s 5th birthday when he bought him a plant pot, to his mother’s 27th when he bought her a couple of magnets advertising Hawkins. 

Needless to say, they were over the moon.

It seemed to only be birthday presents. His Christmas presents were always somehow perfect, but he could never seem to do birthdays.

As he had grown older, his ability to buy birthday presents had not improved and everyone that he had ever bought presents for prepared themselves beforehand to see whatever mess he would give them next. 

Everyone except Steve.

They had been together nearly a month or two when Jonathan remembered that Steve’s birthday was coming up soon, and that meant he had to get him a present. Jonathan, who was terrible at giving presents.

Steve was at his house when he remembered, playing video games with Will while Jonathan relaxed back against the couch with a book. He sighed loudly, and Steve almost immediately paused his video game – ignoring the loud protests from Will - from his place on the floor.

“You okay?” He said, looking up at him.

Jonathan just smiled at him, waving his hand vaguely, before opening his book back up.

“Yeah, everything’s fine.”

Everything was certainly not fine.

 

The second he closed the door behind Steve the next morning, all soft smiles and short kisses, he looked at Will blankly.

His brother just looked at him, amused, “You remember his birthday?”

Jon just groaned, moving away from the door to look out the window, watching Steve’s car leave.

“I’m screwed. Actually screwed.”

Will walked over to the window, standing with him. He had grown a lot in the past few months, his confidence growing alongside him; he was almost eye to eye with Jonathan. If that wasn’t terrifying, he didn’t know what was.

(Ignoring a _6-foot monster_ that the _government_ took from _another dimension_.)

“I could help? I bet mom is really good at that type of stuff or even Nancy! She knows Steve pretty well.”

Jon shook his head. What type of boyfriend was he if he couldn’t even buy him an okay-ish present?

“Should I warn him, do you think? Of how bad I am at this.”

Will laughed loudly, surprised. “I don’t think you’re quite that terrible,” although, after a few moments of thinking of it, he seemed to change his mind, “Maybe.”

They both moved away from the window, and Jon moved to go to his room while Will moved to sit on the floor to resume the video game that Steve and he had left on pause the night before.

He sat on the bed and rested his head into his hands, thinking.

Steve knew that Jonathan didn’t have a lot of money, and he would never expect him to spend all of it on an expensive gift, even if it was for him. Jonathan didn’t exactly want to buy something cheap for him too, because he’s still his boyfriend. It had to be something personal.

Personal. Them.

Jonathan shot up, spine cracking with the force, and he moved off the bed, quickly pushing through his bedroom door to get to his brother. 

“Will!”

Will jumped, his remote flying out of his hand. He scrambled over to it to pick it up, but before he could his character on the screen died. “Wha- Jonathan! That was the furthest I had ever got to in that level!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I just- I have the perfect idea for a present.”

Will rolled his eyes but paused the game, turning around. Lacking confidence, he said, “What is it?”

Jon sat on the floor beside him and explained his plan. Will liked his idea but a few of the points weren’t as great as he had thought they were, so they discussed them further until Jonathan had a firm plan. 

“Wow, I’m so proud of you. Your ability to give birthday presents must have improved since my birthday, a mere month ago.”

Jon smiled sheepishly, “I apologized for the tie.” He gave him the same tie he had a year before. Will had taken it in stride.

 

Steve’s birthday came days later, and Jon’s present was fully prepared. Since Steve had moved on from his well-known ‘King’ lifestyle, his party was made up of his closest friends, ranging from Jonathan to Dustin to a new friend he made during his newest job at Scoops Ahoy called Robin.

By the end of the night, Steve was looking at him curiously, since Jon had neatly bypassed giving him his present when the rest of their little family did so.

He assumed that most of those who knew Jonathan’s atrocious skills just assumed he wanted to give it in privacy to avoid the shame, from the looks being sent his way.

He let them think that.

The party continued further into early hours, everyone talking with anyone (Jonathan saw Nancy have a very long conversation with Robin, both of their smiles were constant).

He almost wished he could take more pictures of their new family, but his camera was locked in his car which he left at home since he was staying at Steve’s overnight.

It didn’t take long for most of the kids to crash, and once that happened the adults quickly hustled home to have their own afterparties. Meanwhile, Jonathan and Steve quickly snuck upstairs, giggling the whole time.

They stayed stuck to the bed for an hour or two (who can blame them for losing track) before Steve questioned him about his present.

“I mean, if that was my present I’m definitely not going to complain, but you brought something with you?”

Jon laughed, turning his body to lie half on top of Steve, “No, _that_ was an indulgence. I’ve got your present,” he reached over Steve, kicking him accidentally a few times, and picked up the present from underneath his bed,” right here.”

He dropped the box onto Steve’s naked chest, causing him to curl around it, grunting, before moving back into the same position he was in before, draped over his shoulder. Steve just looks at the box for a minute, so Jonathan nudges his shoulder and mumbles “Open it.”

Steve chuckles and moves up the bed, putting him in a sitting position. He picks it up off his chest and then unwrapping it to show a small cardboard box containing multiple photos.

He takes each one out, silently looking at each of them, blank-faced. The photo of him at the Quarry. The photo of him passed out in the car. The photo of him in bed after his and Nancy’s break up.

“Steve?”

He doesn’t look over, as he continues to stare at one of the photos. When Jon looks at it, he sees it is one of the ones that Will slipped into the box when he was compiling all of the photos with a wink. It is of him and Steve at the Christmas party, wrapped around each other, both of them looking at each other.

He didn’t even know it had been taken. 

“Steve?”

He finally looked at him, and Jon instantly saw the wet eyes. “Jon...” He didn’t continue but he threw himself over Jonathan, causing them to both rolls off the other side of the bed. 

Steve was both laughing and crying, but Jon was just smiling at him.

“So, you like the present?”

Steve headbutts him in the chest, “Of course I like the present, you idiot.”

“Good, because I don’t know if you were aware, but I am terrible at giving presents,” he says, laughing.

Steve rolls his eyes at him, shuffling backward until he is just straddling his abdomen, “I may have been told by a few people.”

They both laugh, and then simultaneously seem to become aware that neither of them are wearing much clothing.

“Good birthday?”

Steve looks down at him.

“Great birthday.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's the end! Hope you liked the book, and if you have anything that you think could be improved, please comment! This book is unbeta'd, so I definitely want any checks!
> 
> Thank you!
> 
> (Feel free to request further additions to this AU, I would love to continue this as it has been one of my favorite books to write! Tumblr: ShipOnTheHorizon)


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